Jin Woo Han's cycloptic Portable Theater concept

This clever little cycloptic concept by South Korean industrial designer Jin Woo Han is a combination computer and projector: a tiny Wind PC sized home theater box perfect for tucking under the arm and lugging around. The projector nestles into the concavity of the chassis top: surround sound is outputed through speakers built-in to the side. Conceptual, of course, which means it is forged of ganja during designer fever dreams, but it is often nice to peek through the occulus of a parallel world on these slower newsdays.

Portable PC Theater [Nick Papa Georgia]

[#1 posted by mujadaddy , August 27, 2008 2:10 PM]

The fact that this would be a PC, too, is worthy of the headline.

[#2 posted by zuzu , August 27, 2008 4:00 PM]

Microsoft Research actually comes up with some nice designs, and it's also everything I expect from an ROK or Japanese designer.

I'd love something like this. If anyone else hates dealing with clutter and moving as much as I do, then you'll appreciate how you'd rather have one of these than a 50" HDTV any day.

I have a laptop and a server, but there are times when hosting company where playing videos or VJ material for a party is highly desirable.

All of the media itself can be stored on a ZFS array of terabyte hard drives as Network Attached Storage on a gigabit network, while a laptop gets day-to-day work done. But this "portable theater" completes the trio. The analog out or USBaudio out can just plug into a mixer to existing Mackie SRM450 amplified speakers.

[#3 posted by Jake0748 , August 27, 2008 5:15 PM]

If this turns out to be anything like the projectors already out there, replacing the bulb will approach the cost of the entire unit. Cool concept though.

[#4 posted by Garr , August 28, 2008 1:27 AM]

"... you'd rather have one of these than a 50" HDTV any day."

Nope. Absolutely not. For a projector, first of all you need space, which nobody can afford nowadays (except in the U.S., I guess). Besides, you need the right material to project upon. My blood-red lacquered walls wouldn't do. And then you'll always have the problem of something moving through the picture, as there's no chance to escape the beam being project through the whole length of a room.

[#5 posted by Atomische , August 28, 2008 4:24 AM]

As cool as it looks, does one really want the projector lens "nestled" atop surround sound speakers? I suspect that watching a movie with heavy bass would cause the picture to quaver.

[#6 posted by zuzu , August 28, 2008 11:14 AM]

first of all you need space, which nobody can afford nowadays (except in the U.S., I guess).

Lenses and keystoning in existing projectors already do amazing things.

Besides, you need the right material to project upon. My blood-red lacquered walls wouldn't do.

Ok, yeah, it's been a long time since I've lived anywhere that didn't have white walls -- even when it was brick it was thickly coated with white paint.